[France] Ales Can'T Rival Wines

Its not easy being a brewer in France. Its a national with a beverage industry that's dominated by wine and a culture in which beer has to take a back seat. Historically, the emergence of France as a wine making nation is linked to climate. Producers in the Alsace region manufacture around 80% of French beer. Figures for 2005 from the pan-European trade body Brewers of Europe show France's per capita beer consumption at less than 33.4/litres, less than a third that of Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK,a and below half that of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and even Portugal. Even the French trade association admits that consumption is the lowest in Europe.